The squeeze on household finances will continue for at least the next decade as experts warned prices would continue to increase at double the current rate of inflation.

Food prices in Britain have risen by 32 per cent since 2007, double the EU average, according to figures released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Economists expect the cost of the weekly shop to continue to rise by around 4 per cent a year until 2022 at least. The increase is almost twice the current rate of inflation of 2.5 per cent.

Rising prices will take the annual food bill for the average family to over £4,000 within a decade, up from £2,766 last year, heaping further pressure on already-stretched households.

Food prices have spiked across the world due to soaring commodity costs and a growing global population, which has led to increased demand. Wheat prices have been further pushed up this year by the worst drought in the US for nearly 80 years, water shortages in Russia and wet weather in the UK, which has damaged crops.

Prices have risen particularly strongly in Britain because the country imports around 40 per cent of the food that it consumes, so it is at the mercy of global prices. As an island nation, transportation costs are also high.

Last night supermarkets denied that they are profiting from rising prices.

DEFRA said that the rise of almost a third in UK food prices since 2007 compares to increases in France and Germany of just 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. The EU average is 16 per cent.

Economists predicted misery for years to come. Clive Black, a food analyst at Shore Capital, the broker, said that food prices in Britain “are going to go higher and higher and higher”.

Research provided to The Daily Telegraph by Mysupermarket.co.uk, the price comparison and shopping site, shows that the price of staples has risen sharply in the last year alone. The price of 500g of minced beef has risen by a fifth, from £2.20 to £2.80, since last September while a 1kg bag of onions has risen by 18 per cent, from 87 pence to £1.02. Carrots, potatoes, eggs and orange juice have also seen steep rises.

Mr Black expects prices to rise by up to 4 per cent a year for a decade. The rise will drive down living standards and hit the elderly and poor most, as they spend a larger proportion of their disposable income on food.

“Living standards in Britain have been falling for some years now because wages have not been going up at the same rate as prices, and that is going to continue,” said Mr Black.

Think-tank the CEBR said that food prices in the UK will continue to rise by around 4 per cent a year until 2016 at least.

Rob Harbron, economist at the CEBR, warned: “Family budgets will remain under pressure as food inflation near 4 per cent digs in for coming years”.

A report last week from Rabobank, the bank, world food prices will hit an all-time high in the first quarter of next year and keep rising.

James Walton, chief economist at the IGD, the retail research body, said price rises have come at the worst possible times for families.

“We saw the start of the commodity price spike coincide with the banking crisis and recession. The timing couldn’t have been worse,” he said.

The average cost of a food shopping bill in Britain is £76.83 a week, an increase of £5.66 copared to last year, according to Which?.

A spokesman for the consumer group said: "The rising price of food is one of consumers' top concerns, to the extent that it's changing the way we shop. Which? research found more of us are shopping at discount supermarkets and hunting out cheaper groceries compared to a year ago. We want supermarkets and retailers to be clearer about food pricing and offer responsible price promotions that give the consumer genuine value for money."

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, food prices in Britain rose by the ninth highest amount in the developed world last year, beaten only by countries including Turkey, Korea and the Slovak Republic.

A spokesman for Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, said that these are “difficult times” for its customers. However he said that the supermarket is “committed to helping keep the cost of food shopping down”.

A DEFRA spokesman said that although the price of food has risen faster in Britain than in other European countries, food in the UK is still “cheaper overall” than in other European countries. DEFRA said that despite the huge rise, overall prices in the UK last year were 4 per cent cheaper in UK than in France and 6 per cent cheaper than in Germany.

The spokesman said that prices in the UK are kept low because supermarkets in this country are more competitive than those in Europe. However while the DEFRA figures showed that fish remains cheaper in the UK than in other countries, fruit and vegetables cost over a fifth more.

Richard Lim, an economist at the British Retail Consortium, which represents retailers, said that that official inflation figures do not take into account the array of “multi-buy promotions, fuel coupons and price-matching at the till” that supermarkets offer.

“The actual rate of food inflation experienced by households in the UK is lower than official statistics suggest,” said Mr Lim.

Last month the World Bank warned that global food prices had risen by 10 per cent in a month, with maize and soy-bean reaching record highs due to an “unprecedented” summer of droughts in the US and Eastern Europe.

It warned that prices will remain “high and volatile in the long-run”.